Broncos fans started booking tickets to New York before Peyton Manning had put on his AFC championship cap, but they will find a different travel climate from when the team last played in the Super Bowl 15 years ago.

Denver fans are lucky, on one hand, that the game is near New York City — with no shortage of hotels and plenty of flights into the area’s three major airports.

But there are only a few face-value tickets available to the Feb. 2 matchup between the Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. And over the years, travel has migrated online, increasing the potential to be scammed in the panicked search for tickets and accommodations.

“You really need to do your homework, run a background check and check the (company you buy through on the) Better Business Bureau website,” said John Pittman, vice president of industry and consumer affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents.

Total sales of airline tickets to the New York area from Denver International Airport spiked 90 percent on Sunday night compared with the previous Sunday, according to the online travel agency Orbitz. By Monday morning, Denver-New York bookings during Super Bowl weekend were already up 58 percent compared with the same weekend last year.

“There are more flights coming in from other major areas, so there are more options for people getting on a flight,” Orbitz senior editor Jeanenne Tornatore said.

For those fans booking their own flights and hotels, “the sooner you book, the better,” Tornatore said.

“The good news is that this is a destination that has a significant amount of hotel inventory,” Tornatore said. “When you look at it compared to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the average night stay was $500, and they booked up quickly in the metro area.”

The average hotel stay in Manhattan during Super Bowl weekend was around $327 a night on Monday, many of them requiring a two-night minimum stay, according to Orbiz.

In Jersey City and Union City — two large New Jersey cities near MetLife Stadium — hotel prices are at the highest, with many requiring a three-night minimum stay. For Super Bowl weekend, room vacancy in this area had dropped to 6 percent Saturday from 30 percent on Thursday.

“Your best bet is staying in Manhattan and taking public transportation to the game,” Tornatore said.

Not every season-ticket holder gets a chance to buy Super Bowl tickets at face value. Many Denver season- ticket holders received letters Monday notifying them if they’d won the ticket lottery. One man said his letter gave him the option to buy a pair of tickets for $1,700.

The NFL allocated about 17.5 percent of MetLife’s 82,566 seats to the Broncos, according to Newsday.

But without a bit of luck, tickets to the big game will be pricey.

Liz LeBlanc, her husband and cousin paid $3,100 each for nosebleed seats.

“I felt like it was a little expensive, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I’m not going to miss it,” she said. “My grandparents went a long time ago, in like the ’80s, and my grandma had the tickets framed in her Broncos room. So I couldn’t pass up the chance.”

The tickets may be hard to come by, too, leading many fans to third-party agencies peddling travel packages.

“There are packages, but they are pretty expensive,” said Bonnie Brae Travel agent Eileen Umhoefer, who has 50 years of experience. “It’s so difficult to go online today because there are so many scams. In years past, people have gotten bad deals.”

Minimizing fan risk is part of the reason the Broncos officially endorsed a partnership with sports travel agency PrimeSport.

On Monday afternoon, PrimeSport’s average game ticket — not including flight or hotel — was $3,500. The cheapest available seat was $2,200.

“Right out of the gate, the tickets go through the roof,” PrimeSport spokesman John Swidzinski said. “The demand for the game is always massive right off the bat, but then dip for a while before spiking again right before the game.”

The company has partnerships with 16 NFL teams, including the Broncos and Seahawks, which gives them access to a large number of Super Bowl tickets, PrimeSport president Sam Soni said. Each NFL team — in the game or not — receives a percentage of tickets.

Soni’s company handled the fan travel for the Broncos during their last Super Bowl appearance in 1999, and travel has changed since then, he says.

“I think awareness of these types of offerings are more prevalent now,” Soni said. “It is a unique Super Bowl: You’ve got two team that haven’t been in it for a while, in a city that’s never hosted before so you have quite a bit of demand for the game.”

Check the tickets. Make sure when booking a sports package that the arrangements include tickets to the desired sporting event. The U.S. government’s “Truth in Ticketing” rules require that a tour operator advertising a Super Bowl travel package that includes a flight and game tickets must have the game tickets in hand or have a written contract for the tickets before they can even advertise.

Read the fine print. Get information about the tour package and operator in writing. Read it carefully, and ask your travel agent to explain all the details. The American Society of Travel Agents offers the following suggestions when evaluating any travel offer to help avoid being a victim of a travel scam:

• Retain a healthy dose of skepticism.Be extremely skeptical about unsolicited e-mail, postcard and phone solicitations saying you’ve been selected to receive a fabulous vacation or anything free. Be especially wary of firms requiring you to wait at least 60 days to take your trip.

• Do your homework. Some offers might sound great on the surface, but be sure to read the fine print. Certain offers impose so many requirements and restrictions, such as blackout dates and companion fees, that you will either never have the chance to take the trip or you will end up paying more than if you made arrangements on your own or used a travel agent.

• Keep private information private. Never give out your credit-card number unless you initiate the transaction and are confident about the company with which you are doing business.

• Get the facts. You should receive complete details in writing about any trip prior to payment. These details should include the total price; cancellation and change penalties, if any; and specific information about all components of the package.

• Follow up. Once you have the complete details of your trip, contact the hotel and transportation companies on your own to make certain the reservations have been made.

• Protect yourself. Always pay with a credit card, if possible. Even legitimate companies can go out of business. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, credit-card customers have the right to refuse paying for charges for services not rendered.

Kristen Leigh Painter was a former business reporter who focused on airlines and aerospace coverage. She joined The Post in September 2011 and departed for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in August 2014. She graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a master's in journalism after earning a bachelor's in history from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.

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